Need some heat.

Bret4207

At the casting bench in the sky. RIP Bret.
Oh, time takes it toll. The old electric hot plate I used for years has given up the ghost. Looking around, I don;t see any 1500 watt hotplates for sale at a price I'm willing to pay. So I'm actually considering buying a new pot! I have to admit I don't cast anywhere as near as much as I used to, just can't find time. So it's not like I'm going to be using it 5 or 6 times a week like I used to. I'm looking hard at the RCBS Easy melt with the digital control. I imagine I'd continue to use the old stand by thermometer that sits in my old pot, but a repeatable digital setting would be nice. Anyone else have one or that has used one and has an opinion? I'm used to a 40ish lb pot, but I can't justify several hundred for a pot that size. https://www.midwayusa.com/product/868436/rcbs-easy-melt-furnace

I also have to get some controls for my SAECO pots. I have an old link to a manual control, but I don't recall how it was suggested they be mounted. Any help there? http://orders.ppe.com/odr/rbpperetail.htm?p-part=B-200
 

Ian

Notorious member
I have one, I think John (Winelover) has one, and a couple others. There's a thread here somewhere on it. I like it but we all complain about the cooldown cycle, you have to leave it plugged in after you turn off the thermostat so the fan keeps the electronics from melting. It takes about an hour for it to cool off enough to unplug. Just one damned thing more to remember to do. Other than that, it's a great little ladle furnace.
 

RicinYakima

High Steppes of Eastern Washington
The only issue some have with the RCBS easy melt is that the electronics' cooling fan stops if you shut it off. The manual says to turn it down to room temperature and leave it on. Some say it takes hours to cool off if you leave lead in the crucible. Since I empty the crucible every time, down know what I will melt the next time, it cools off in about 10 minutes. HTH
 

Bret4207

At the casting bench in the sky. RIP Bret.
Jeeze, now I'm thinking "It's ONLY a 25 lbs pot." I'm going to have to actually weigh my old pot and see how much it really holds to gauge things. Thanks for the link. On the fan, seems like someone at RCBS would have thought about an on board thermostat for the cooling side.
 

Ian

Notorious member
It's mostly a habit of unplugging it, always and every time. Remember when Lloyd Smale's shop burned down when he left a furnace to warm-up unattended? That was just reinforcement for what I'd always done, kinda like gun safety, it can't burn your house down if the lead is cool and the cord is out of the wall.
 

Rick

Moderator
Staff member
J On the fan, seems like someone at RCBS would have thought about an on board thermostat for the cooling side.

I've wondered that myself. I wouldn't think such a critter would be very difficult or expensive to wire in. Could even instead of a thermostat for the fan wire it so you can turn the heat off and leave the fan on a timer.
 

358156 hp

At large, whereabouts unknown.
Brett, you can build a PID for your SAECO pot pretty inexpensively. I think my PID parts cost a whopping $50.00 or so from Amazon. There's a lot of information out there about building your own PID.I use mine for both pots, and for my shop oven that I use for powdercoating bullets, and curing Cerakote on small parts.
pid.jpg
 

Bret4207

At the casting bench in the sky. RIP Bret.
Thanks 156, but my intention is to mount one pot above the other ( I have 2) so I have twice the capacity. I'm not a big BP fan. I can do it, but it's so slow! I'm not sure if a PID is what I want, but then I've never used a pot with one. I'm still trying to recall how the one I linked to is supposed to be mounted as it's a "clamp on" style that depends on surface contact with the pot.

How do these electronic controls hold up to moisture? These will be in my unheated former milk room in my barn. I've had other electronics that didn't fare so well there. Plus, the power signal there is not the cleanest as we're at the end of power line and the barn is at the end of my power lines to the garage and well in the barn. Are they sensitive to not so perfect power supply?
 

Bret4207

At the casting bench in the sky. RIP Bret.
Well, this is sort of embarrassing, but not unprecedented. Was raining cats and dogs here today so I decided instead of standing in the rain feeling sorry for myself, I'd clean in the barn. Got hogging out the old milk room which functions as my reloading/casting room and stumbled upon a hot plate I'd apparently bought some time back. It's only 1K watts but it gets red hot unlike my old dead one. Heats the pot in about the same time as the old job too. Huh. It'll do for now.

Also got messing around in my mould and powder storage cabinet (an old dead fridge) and found an unopened can of IMR 4895 that was rusted right through! That powder was just dust. Got looking at the other old metal IMR cans and some cardboard and metal Winchester cans and found quite a bit of rust also, all no doubt due to the mistake I (or one of the kids) made in leaving a bottle of iodine with a cracked top in there last winter. I'd gone through the woulds and taken care of the worst of them but I'd missed the powder cans. I cleaned what rust I could and coated them with my shop favorite Vaseline but I'm going to have to replace some of the cans. I'm thinking either Ball canning jars or some sort of plastic bottle, like a water bottle, but I don't know how some plastics react to powder. Have to think on that.

My last ancient (circa 1978 or 9) cardboard and metal can of Hercules 2400 isn't rusted, but when I went to open the top to smell it (I dunno why, I just like the smell!) the plastic neck crumbled away! Guess it's time to change that one too! Last powder I bought was Red Dot and I paid about $32.00. That can of 24000 was marked $11.25 in my Dads hand writting...
 

nicholst55

New Member
Some plastics have a negative effect on double-base powders, as many reloaders discovered way back when the manufacturers switched to plastic powder hoppers on powder measures. You still see a lot of etched powder hoppers on used measures, where a previous owner left powder in the hopper. I know I've seen plastic bottles online that are safe for powder storage - I just can't remember where. Glass jars - well, if they're stored away from sunlight, and you're not clumsy like I am...